Are Wasp & Ant-Man in The Avengers?

Marvel Studios presented fans in attendance at Comic-Con 2010 this Saturday with what may have been the most iconic comic book movie moment ever: the official introduction, unveiling and announcement of the main roster of characters for The Avengers along with its director, Joss Whedon.

While we were able to finally get confirmation on Jeremy Renner playing Hawkeye and Mark Ruffalo taking over for Ed Norton as the new Bruce Banner, some of us wonder if this represents the full cast of the film, or just the core. What about the key characters Ant-Man and Wasp?

Ant-Man will get his own solo film by Edgar Wright eventually. We don’t know when but they’re slowly working away at it. It wasn’t a surprise to see no news on the Ant-Man front coming out of Comic-Con as to not detract from Wright’s other big comic film being showcased at the convention, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World.

It’s expected that the Ant-Man character along with Wasp will join the cast of The Avengers to have the film closely follow the early Marvel Comics issues of ‘The Avengers’ and perhaps more relevant to the film franchise, ‘The Ultimates’ books.

The core Avengers roster revealed at Comic-Con

If you remember, nearly two years ago, Eva Longoria was rumored as the top candidate to play the Wasp as she was spotted exiting Marvel Studios “clutching a business card and some comic books in her hand.” The books of course were issues of The Avengers and the assumption is that she was given those to research while in talks to play the character of Janet Van Dyne.

According to Showbiz Spy, Marvel has had this plan set for a long time and it’s now being rumored by them that Longoria is currently in negotiations for the part. The news is sketchy at this point as the article also points to her shooting scenes in New York in the coming months when we know the project doesn’t begin until early next year. Either way, it does bring back the Longoria rumor and talk about the character’s inclusion in Marvel Studios’ film plans.

If it does turn out that Longoria nabs the role, this becomes a very similar situation to what happened with Jeremy Renner. He revealed a year ago that he had met with Marvel to talk Captain America but instead they had a long discussion about the part of Hawkeye, and even through a year of rumors, denials and speculation, we now know Renner does have the part.

I wouldn’t be surprised to see Wasp and Ant-Man announced at New York Comic-Con in October since it’s much closer to the start date of production for The Avengers. If Longoria is Wasp, who’s Ant-Man? The rumor out there and fan-favorite choice is Nathan Fillion but I’d imagine they’d go for someone younger.

Do you want to see Wasp and Ant-Man join The Avengers? Who should play them?